Posts by Thorsten

Stallman: Did I say Jobs was evil? I meant really evil

Excellent analogy. Hope it's "free", since I'd like to borrow it the next time I have to argue with an Apple fan!

Father of Lisp and AI John McCarthy has died

Third's still missing

Jobs didn't receive a Turing award, and never would have. So he doesn't count.

OpenSUSE 12.1 delivers Fedora punch with GNOME 3

"In a way openSUSE will likely lose some of its appeal – particularly with potential new users who are often focused on what the desktop looks like."

I don't see how openSUSE loses any appeal. The users could do the sensible thing and use KDE instead.

Defendant presents Playmobil rendering of court in court

Here's an article containing pictures of the set:

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110914/local/Fantasy-meets-reality-in-court-of-law.384614

Apple ejects FT app from iTunes

...FT has nothing to do with NI

The Financial Times is the main competitor of the Wall Street Journal. The latter is owned by Murdoch, the former not.

German authorities park tanks on Facebook's lawn

Weibchen?

That's an interesting new insult.

"Bitch" would normally be translated as "Schlampe"

Google calls halt on German Street View

If it's high res, then yes

"According to German law it is not permissible to violate the protected privacy of a person by means of photographs from airplanes or helicopters. (BGH, verdict from 9 December 2003, AZ: VI ZR 373/02, - aerial photographs of a holiday house)" (source: Wikipedia, my translation)

Google hits 'prove we killed no Afghans' – Assange™

Why?

1. its a stupid suggestion to get a meaningful ranking by googling that phrase

2. you get much more impressive numbers if you don't, so much less fun if you quote the phrase

3. the whole Assange(tm) saga is beyond satire anyway

Fukushima situation as of Wednesday

yes, let's

Firstly, 15TW is the total energy consumption, not just electricity consumption. But anway, wind power already can already deliver 1% of that, and I don't see a 100-fold increase covering the whole planet.

Secondly, I personally wouldn't a priori exclude Antarctica or off-shore locations. Not many bees there to fret over, and plenty of wind.

Thirdly, given this government-sponsored study on leukemia incidences, if I'd live close to a nuclear power plant (which I don't), I would worry about the effects on the health of my children more than whether there's mobile phone transmission mast in the vicinity. (and actually I don't worry about those)

In another post you mentioned fusion energy. I'm 100% with you on that. I don't see wind as the sole energy source. (I prefer solar furnaces and solar updraft towers, btw) But until fusion power is ready, I much rather use renewable energy sources than nuclear technology. Do you have a problem with that?

Really?

Well, if "Japan's Self-Defense Forces have postponed a mission to dump water by helicopter on the No.3 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, because radiation above the facility has climbed too high for such work" (source: NHK), then I don't think that radiation levels are "quite safe". At least that's what my friend Harvey tells me. But then he's a white rabbit, so what does he know...

@Vladimir

"But how much damage thousands of *operational* bird-choppers do over a period of time? You cannot say that."

At least they won't give you leukemia. "A government-sponsored study of childhood cancer in the proximity of German nuclear power plants found that children < 5 years living < 5 km from plant exhaust stacks had twice the risk for contracting leukemia as those residing > 5 km." See: Kaatsch P, Kaletsch U, Meinert R, Michaelis J. An extended study on childhood malignancies in the vicinity of German nuclear power plants. Cancer Causes Control. 1998;9(5):529-533.

"How much damage to the environment their manufacturing does? No word on that either."

Most probably much less than the damage caused by processing and storage of Nuclear fuels and waste.

"you can't have enough of these to meet our needs for electricity unless you cover the whole Earth with the bee-smashers"

Any numbers? Any source? And who insisted on wind being the only option?

Anyway, let's be silly and suppose it should be wind only. Wikipedia says that world power consumption is on average around 15 Terawatts. Work is underway on 10 MW turbines. That would make it 1.5 million turbines when running at full power. On average one turbine every 340 square kilometers. I've got the feeling that we might be able to cluster the things a bit tighter, so that covering the whole Earth won't be necessary.

increase

"You wrote "...according to the IAEA the incidence of thyroid cancer among such children and young people rose to one case in 4,500" however you omitted to state the starting point this is to be compared to. One presumes it's a number smaller than 1/4500, however that is a rather large field :)"

In parts, the increase was staggering:

"In the age group of 9-year-old children, the incidences in three regions defined as the 'high-dose area', the northern, and the middle oblasts, increased by factors of 50, 20, and 6, respectively."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9402636

No, I won't

Look... you don't know what radiation dosage those 50 workers still on site have been exposed to. This information has not been released. It may well be that it's been high enough that they stand a good chance not to survive the next few weeks, or it may have been low enough that they only have a somewhat higher chance of developing cancer. That only one died from being hit by a crane and two more missing after an explosion (somewhere I read about 5 confirmed deaths, but I can't remember where) doesn't make it a small issue.

There are 3000 square miles around Chernobyl lost to agriculture for centuries. Mushrooms from the woods in South-East Germany, 1000 km from Chernobyl, may be safe to eat again in 300 years, and wild boars that eat those mushrooms cannot be hunted for meat either. Thyroid cancer numbers are 30 times higher than normal in the Ukraine. The impact of the Fukushima accident will only become apparent in 20 years, but I'd wager that it will be measurable. So, would everyone please stop with the "Nuclear is safe" bull until then?

We may decide that the extra risk carried by Nuclear technology is acceptable. But it does carry a risk. However, what long-term damage does a collapsed windmill cause? Or a broken solar furnace?

Site-saving workers evacuated from Japanese reactor disaster

mSv -> µSv

According to Kyodo and NHK, it was 1000 µSv. BBC and all other Western news pages that I read must have copied from the same source.

Still, much too high.

Engineer killed on Endeavour launch pad

No, it isn't

"Endeavour was named after a ship chartered to traverse the South Pacific in 1768 and captained by 18th century British explorer James Cook"

See: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/shuttleoperations/orbiters/endeavour-info.html

Second explosion rocks Japanese nuke plant

El tit

The control rods just stop the chain reaction. The residual nuclear waste still produces heat through decay that must be dissipated. When pumps fail (as happened) this becomes a major problem. Hence the partial core meltdown that apparently now has happened at block 2 as the fuel rods became exposed.

And, btw, much as the resident pro-nuke faction might disagree, nuclear technology cannot be made safe. No technology can be made entirely safe. It's a question of whether we think the risk being acceptable, including the as-yet-unknown risks. Personally, I much rather use "green" energy (water, solar, wind) than nuclear, although I accept that nuclear is probably "cleaner" than fossil energy.

Half a million Germans rally in support of 'Baron von Googleberg'

TOFTC

That would be "TofTC - Think of the children", not "TOFTC - Take one for the country", I presume?

German Foreign Office kills desktop Linux, hugs Windows XP

Exactly

I heard about it a couple of days ago on German radio. The FO will keep Linux for backoffice stuff (i.e., servers), but it was apparently impossible for all the years that they used Linux to train the normal users to use Linux-based desktops. Which actually paints a pretty damaging picture of the average FO staff's mental flexibility.

Airbus secures whopping 180 plane deal

I take your Physics and raise you Math

It was only when physicists realised that their field is just applied mathematics that they progressed from metaphysics to physics.

Hey kids, wanna build your own Vulture 1?

In other news...

US bans export of paper straws to Iran.

iPhone users are sad and mentally unfocused

Just goes to show..

Just goes to show what a really sad bunch these fanbois are! Unable to keep focused on the job when their iPhone demands attention...

Israeli robot trouser snake 'too big' to penetrate backdoors

Lewis, not Lester?

needed to check the byline twice. Impressive innuendo levels, keep it up!

LOST Vulture One PARIS spaceplane FOUND!!!

Small hole

Better a small hole after re-entry than before (cf. Columbia)!

Excellent!

Congratulations all round!

PARIS HAS LANDED!!! Epic supra-atmos flight ends

Plane was released

2010-10-28 13:43:15 UTC: G6UIM-9>KJ4ERJ-AP: plane released not a scratch

2010-10-28 13:43:33 UTC: KJ4ERJ-AP>G6UIM-9: Plane released now, or in flight?

2010-10-28 13:45:58 UTC: G6UIM-9>KJ4ERJ-AP: in flight

2010-10-28 13:46:18 UTC: KJ4ERJ-AP>G6UIM-9: And the Plane is recovered? From where?

2010-10-28 13:47:52 UTC: G6UIM-9>KJ4ERJ-AP: plane not recovered yet

2010-10-28 13:48:15 UTC: KJ4ERJ-AP>G6UIM-9: ah, so "no scratches" is on the launch mechanism and balloon+

2010-10-28 13:48:15 UTC: KJ4ERJ-AP>G6UIM-9: payload?

Hmm... with the GPS transmitter apparently not working on the plane, this could be a lengthy search!

Ten... bedside iPod docks

Ten Essential... bedside iPod docks???

Essential? All ten of them?? Good grief... So glad I don't own an iPod!

Ellison winds up rivals with stack-in-a-box vision

Better flowers?

"They believe walled IT gardens have better IT flowers than open meadows"

The flowers in the garden may be prettier. But the healthier ecosystem will be the meadow, not the garden.

Are Oracle and Apple the Monsanto of the IT world?

Fog of cyberwar: internet always favors the offense

Landscape

The fact that he talked about rivers and hills as natural defenses shows that he was not talking about offensive or defensive fighting. He was talking about larger defense structures than firewalls. These are comparable to, say, city walls - a last defense maybe, but not enough to deter attacks, because attacking is easy, breaching only slightly less so. He was talking about structures that would make the *attack* itself harder. But the internet is largely flat - like the North German plains. No rivers or hills to pass - it's TCP/IP everywhere, the same hardware, the same software.

PARIS in hot glue gun action

PUR glue

Try using polyurethan book binding glue.

"Books bound by PUR will not fail at extreme temperatures — even over 200°F or under -40°F." (http://americanprinter.com/pur-binding/printing_pur_perfect_binding/)

Don't know if that temperature range is sufficient, though...

Apple denies iPhone 4 antenna glitch, blames inaccurate signal bars

I'm a developer, I know about patches...

I bet the fix look something like this:

int calculateBars() {

return 5;

}

I wonder whether the real reason they now found a software fix is to avoid a Toyota-like recall, so I got doubts about the fix being the real deal. But maybe I'm just too cynical about all things Apple...

'Biggest thing in farming for 10,000 years on horizon'

Im no farmer too...

...but I think I have seen fields of grass that didn't need replanting after being mown.

Redback spiders provoke BAE lock-down

The horror, the horror!

"Big, tough men were yelling with fear [...] there are still fears some may have fled to nearby fields and could start breeding"

I really must stop skimming and read more thoroughly! Now I'll need the rest of the day (at least) to get rid of mental images of aerospace engineers mating in the fields of Preston...

Plucky Finn attempts to drive length of Finland in small digger

The whole length?

Not quite, more two-thirds of it. Though petrol stations may be too few to make it much further north in the digger.

Also, "Mr Mutanen normally works with Sunward's Finnish distributor, and the two firms have generously supported his record-breaking attempt by providing the digger and maintenance support during the trip". Isn't he a "excavator repairman" himself? Does "maintenance support" refer to himself, or is that too cynical?

Finally, I expect any follow-up story to be labelled "RotM", seeing that the digger is manufactured by Hunan Sunward *Intelligent Machinery* Company. I was going to Finland for the summer, but maybe I should cancel the trip...

Russia launches Cyrillic top-level domain

The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

Instead of relying on Google for a translation you could just try pasting президент.рф into your browser's URL field and see that it's in fact the correct name of the domain.

1. It's a voiced s, "з", not a voiceless s, "с". Google gives you the anglo-saxon phonetic equivalent, "prezident", while the Reg article gives the translation of the word, "president".

2. Never rely on automatic translation unless you have a clue about the original language as well as the target language.

Waterstone's whips out its pendulous dugs

The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

Nice catch!

New Reg comments system ready to launch

Optimization possibility

You could add an optimization engine that finds the best fit between comment and story: reader posts comment and it will be moved automatically to the most appropriate thread.

For a few quid more, there could be an option to add some standard lines automatically, depending on the choice of icon (coat, PH, etc.), so readers don't have to invent lame jokes themselves.

This comment processing engine would of course introduce some embarrassing orthographic inaccuracies in each comment, unless you pay even more...

Polaroid enthusiasts unveil new instant film

Future-proof?

What's future proof about digital? Are you sure that your CCD sensor isn't obsolete in 2 year's time? That your inkjet/thermal prints haven't faded in 10 years? That you will still find a working SD card or a workign reader in 25?

Microsoft talks up Windows 7 SP1, shy on dates

What the heck...

...is "pandaing"?

Though, if it's anything like what I think it is, I don't want to know more details. But then it's pub o'clock already on a Friday, so I can't really focus my thoughts anymore...

Dedicated Vi device vies for buyers

Vi???

If it ran Emacs, then it would be actually useful. But Vi? C'mon, they can't be serious...

Quantum superclock will be accurate past end of life on Earth

Re:

"So we'll have to redefine what a second *is* in order for this clock to become more accurate."

That depends on what definition of *is* you use.

Airships can defeat roadside bombers, says ex-US officer

no title

So you're going to pay a year's salary for identifying the location of an IED? And how much would it cost to assemble an IED? Do you see a problem with the plan?

ASA bans tyrannical German boss ad

Nope, not offended

well, actually, I am offended by Reed not using a German native speaker for the advert. The guy sounds like a Belgian who tries to speak German. Can't be that hard to find a German expat in the UK. All of which should have the necessary sense of humour, since without you wouldn't cope with the third-world infrastructure.

Wikipedia sued for publishing convicted murderer's name

@Thomas Glover

Under German law, you shouldn't print the full name. German reports on the murder would usually list him as "Wolfgang W.". "Usually", because there are exceptions, e.g. http://rhein-zeitung.de/02/05/16/ges/pan/00000800.html

And since I'm not a lawyer, I'm just as confused as to when (or whether) it's ok to print the full name...

Scots slam Germans for 'tight-arsed' slur

Not only tight, but slow as well...

I can remember (barely) that jokes about Scots being tight were made over here when I was a kid, and that's 30+ years ago. Nobody noticed apparently. But then so were jokes about East Frisians (for being slow) or Suebians (for being tight). Interestingly, there was a long running campaign by the largest electronics chain with the tagline "Geiz ist geil" ("stinginess is cool"), and not a single Scot to be seen in any of the advertisements.

If that doesn't sound like a coherent argument, it's because it's past pub o'clock already.

BTW, shops being called McSomething don't allude to Scotland but to the golden arches. Do Scots complain about being connotated with processed meat in a bun? If they do, does anybody understand their hermetic accent?

Ares I: What's the point?

@LPF

"How hard would it have been to create a new shuttle with updated equipement and better maintainable heat shielding and wing protection from FOB strikes???"

Yeah, it's not exactly rocket science, innit?

<roll eyes>

Ohio armed robber asked victim for a date

@lukewarmdog

What's a Times list doing on the Telegraph website?

Paris, b/c etc.

Authorities release Nuremberg Nazi gnome

@ Tom Welsh

This forum is not the right place to get into deeper philosophical debates, but let me just say this: the fundamental concept of freedom includes that freedom is limited where it violates the rights of others. Therefore a society may well choose to forbid actions when the sole intent of such actions is such violations. If you want to live in a libertarian society, move to Somalia.

On the contrary, it is my experience that much of Europe is getting a lot of things better than your average Sun-reading Brit, who's brainwashed into thinking Europe==bad and always ends up barking up the wrong tree, viz. the ID card debate: as if it mattered whether you had to carry a piece of plastic when there are all sorts of databases (eg., council tax, income tax, phone, passports, credit cards, shop cards) that contain your data which may be connected and trawled by the government or police at their leisure (s.28 of the DPA: I don't think such blanket exemptions exist on "the continent").

German bomber crashes on Moon Google Earth

Plesiosaur!

This doesn't look like a Ju-88 at all, but looks remarkably like a plesiosaur. There must be some tunnel linking this lake to Loch Ness.

Russians demand flying cars and telepathy

Light-speed vehicles are crap...

...imagine being stuck in a can for four years just to visit Alpha Centauri. And that's without the return flight.

I want Faster-Than-Light space flight, available for everyone, powered by alternative fuels, controlled by artificial intelligence. A perpetuum mobile on board would be fine, the more Rube-Goldbergesque the better, though I suspect that some law of thermodynamics or other might need to be rephrased first. Also, teleportation for visits on alien planets where I would zip around in my flying car. No time machine, thank you, those just create nasty paradoxes.

Although, artificial intelligence alone would be fine for starters. Plenty of people seem to need some implanted asap.

Lotus offers to end e-car silent running

@Ian Ferguson

Tyre noise only dominates at speeds higher than about 30 km/h (higher for lorries). Take away the engine noise and you might not be able to hear the approaching car before it's too close. So such a system does make sense.

Though I would like to see a law that forbids anything but some standard sounds. Penalty for uploading "Crazy Frog" or similar aural atrocities should be permanent loss of driving licence.